Page 15 of Strip It Down (Spoiled by My Blue Collar Man #4)
Sayer
Someone hurt me. At ten, I didn’t know what she’d meant. Now I do. There were bruises on her wrists, when she took the flowers, and a scrape on her cheek and neck.
“You were fourteen. You were crying. You said someone hurt you. You had bruises. It was Greg Archer, wasn’t it?”
She pales but doesn’t deny it. Of course. Greg dated her sister then pimped her. His father did the same with her mother. Gentry would have been what he saw as his due, the next in line. Her beauty had just started blossoming and it was obvious she’d be a stunner.
I remember her going about her business after that but being more guarded.
Fewer smiles. Whenever Greg tried to approach her, she’d become loud and mouthy, calling him out for being a jerk.
People would notice, pause and look and she always seemed to sneak away leaving him exposed for the jerk he was.
She never kowtowed to him which infuriated him more.
“You left town.”
“I tried. MaryKatherine hired me to babysit, she had an idea about my life and would even let me sleep over sometimes. Her husband was a bully, too.
“I saved every dime for five years toward the day I could escape. I moved to Blue Spruce and registered at the community college. Every time I’d get a decent job, Greg would somehow find out and I’d get fired.
“I knew a girl in class that was an exotic dancer she got me a job with her. We shared a dump of an apartment and a car. Our backgrounds were similar. Greg found out and started coming in to the club where we worked. But the bouncer was a good guy and he always made sure we were left alone. Greg made sure to tell everyone back home I was a stripper and a whore. Some of the guys would come in to check it out.” She shrugs.
“Their tips were as good as anyone else’s and paid for my degree. ”
She tilts her chin, her gaze daring me to judge. I just wink.
“Mom’s health got bad, and my sister was no help. So, I moved home and was commuting to finish my degree. My sister took off. I was close to graduating when Mom’s trailer caught fire. The arson inspector felt it was deliberate, but he couldn’t find the proof.
“It took me longer than most to get my degree, but I did it. I could have left after graduation. Maybe I should have, but I was so damn angry. So much of our issues were tied to Greg, the whole Archer family and their manipulations. I wasn’t going to let them get off so easy.
I’ve been keeping a journal and hoping I could get proof of one of his crimes.
I think I was close at the restaurant when I got fired. ”
I sit up and turn to her. “You were using yourself as bait!”
“I was fighting back,” she snaps. “The bastard deserves to pay.”
Running a hand down my face, I just stare at her. There will never be a dull moment with this woman. Leaning forward I kiss her forehead. “Can you lay next to me and sleep? I want you close. Ayla will be up before we know it.”
She nods. I lay back. “Cuddle up and put your head on my shoulder.” Inhaling deeply, the rightness of her beside me fills my lungs and chest. Good thing I spent all those years in the military. Because I’m waging war and won’t stop till I win her heart.
Slowly sleep leaves me as I crack my eyelids open.
I appreciate the first threads of dawn painting my wall before I recognize the warmth sliding down and up my morning wood.
Shifting my attention, I watch as Gentry pulls off my shaft, strokes it a couple times in her palm before wrapping it once again with her lips and sucking my length into her perfect mouth.
“Sweetheart, you can wake me up everyday this way for the rest of our lives. Or better yet, you do me three days a week and I do you the other four.”
She smiles. “I thought I’d practice a bit before you woke. This is new to me, too.”
Sliding my palms behind my head, I grin. “Practice away.”
It doesn’t take long for her to have me at my explosion point. “Ah Sweet, stop I’m going to blow.”
Instead, she double downs and I can’t hold back and erupt. Heart pounding, body spent, I slowly come down from the best orgasm of my life. Love definitely makes the difference. She pops her luscious lips off and grins. “So I did okay?”
“Sweet, okay doesn’t even come close. You realize, you are stuck with me forever now. Heart, soul, and body. You own me.”
The glow on her face dims for just a second before she climbs up my body and kisses me. “I’ve never been loved before. I’ve never really loved. I felt responsible for my mom and sister, but we were more like roommates.
“What I feel for Ayla, your Dad, is new, too. If what I feel for you is love, I never want it to end. I never want to go without you.”
“You won’t, sweetheart. I’m a one-woman man, and I’ve loved you since I was ten. I’m not going anywhere now that I have you in my arms.”
A rustling sound comes over the baby monitor, before a soft, “Dada.”
Tears fill my eyes, and I don’t care. I kiss her forehead. “You gave me that. Thank you. Take your time, go back to sleep if you want. I’ll take care of her and start breakfast.”
She nods. I climb from bed then turn back to her. Cupping her cheek, I kiss her gently. “I love you, Gentry Shaw. Always.”